Angels2200

...well, DUH.

I want details, dammit!

This strip is very disappointing... again it does not make sense. She sends them away (so she can't make use of them any more)... and now she tells them (so they can't rejoin Terran Society and lead a 'normal life', as the Captain had announced?

Just want to say: called it

You're misreading it. Icebreakers and Lance get on a Shuttle and are sent away. The Captain then has the ship's internal communication channel (also used to send messages like: All Hands brace for impact, Or: All Hands to Battle Stations. This is not a Drill. I repeat, this is not a Drill, etc) opened to address her crew.

Being on a shuttle, the Icebreakers don't get to hear what she's saying, seeing as the Shuttle isn't tied into the internal com-system.

Well, you and just about everybody else over the last few months, really... I mean, heck, a few strips ago, I said this:



I mean, talk about having called it; that's EXACTLY the reaction I'm having right now: "Male killin' plague; s'what I figgered...*psigh*"

And I have to admit, I really was expecting something more. I mean...yeah, we kinna knew the Forseti info was about this, and Han made it seem as if we'd be getting detail in THIS exchange.
But all we get is confirmation of what we had already pretty much guessed, but not a scrap of detail: did the Colonies release the plague or did Earth? The plague WAS manufactured, right? Not naturally occurring? Right? And it was done for what reason?
But all we get is "Forseti = plauge".

'Course, part of this is my own fault; I got psyched up for it, bated breath and all that...expectations? Too high. That's my bad. But still...

Ah, well. The commentary says we'll get more info later, but I'm afraid it'll be about the future of the comic and not the storyline...I still want details, dammit!

Of course you're right... sorry.

Cliffhanger


of sorts



Now we have to wait.



I hate waiting

...I could give you my word as a Spaniard!

Yes, but I'm not Blackthorn and you're not Rodriguez.

Wow...this is the very definition of 'cross purposes'; I was making a The Princess Bride reference...I haven't the least clue in the world what you're talking about. Heh.

Talk about cross purposes alright. Was thinking of Shogun

Consider the phrasing in the final text bubbles and then everything that has occurred.

It's fairly clear, least to me anyway, that it was indeed Earth that unleashed the plague. That it was manufactured then also seems a given, because I sure as heck don't know of a single pathogen which excludes targets based upon gender.

One gender might not be effected by it, granted, but they'd still be a carrier, and considering that a new batch of males is being raised, that doesn't seem to be the case.

So something created to take out all the males, at that precise moment, barring those few with a natural immunity, becomes a lot more likely.

It's like the difference between a neutron bomb and a regular nuke.

As for the reason, possibly the worry that the colonies would go independent, and having enough males to fight a protracted war. Knock out the males, and the women folk will be too busy trying to survive. And most colonies won't have access to sperm banks, they'd be located on a more central and organized planets like... oh.. say Earth..

Meaning, it would be easier for Earth to get a healthy male-female mix population, than it would be for some planet on the outer edge of Human space.

(Holding a pair of big scissors) Geek card please....

But for what purpose? We don't know that it was intentional; it may well be that killing off the males was a complete accident, and there was something else in mind. We also don't know that the plague was released on purpose; it could have been a complete accident for all we know.



Again, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. After all, there are certainly traits which can affect a specific sex; males are more likely to be colorblind due to the Y chromosome, for example. A disease which takes advantage of the bits of male genetics not inherited due to the Y chromosome could potentially evolve, for all we know.



Somehow, the logic of this seems rather off. And slightly sexist. *raised eyebrow*



Why would that be? The colonies seemed fairly independent in the first place, and there is no reason why someone who wants to get pregnant by a donor should have to fly all the way to Earth to get it done...



I'm sorry, but I just don't buy this logic at all.

Considering how the Captain reacted to the news? Unlikely. At the utmost it was meant to knock out the males on the colonies, and not the ones back in the more "civilized" area of Terran Space. The fact that it did is indeed probably an accident.

Doesn't change the fact that the Terran Navy was planning on doing something that borders on genocide, if it was to prevent the colonies from becoming independent, not for a very good reason either.

Continued survival of the human race is one thing, trying to suppress people's desire for a more equal treatment is another. (I point to the juxtaposition between what occurs in Wing Commander 3 and 4. A Planet Buster was used to end the war in WC3, but that was a fight for the continued survival of the human race. In WC4 a virus was used to create a war between a group of colonies (Border Worlds) and the Terran Confederation on the other hand). Said virus was designed to weed out the genetically inferior humans, leaving only the strongest. Or in short eugenics at its most unpalatable.)



This is either a bacterial disease or a virus. Considering how rapidly it spread a virus is more likely, seeing how a) the regular vector to spread a bacterial disease seems to be missing and b) it's unlikely that it would be present on every planet/planetoids/space station* in Human Space.

*: Keep in mind that it would have to be able to survive on arid and arctic planets (places where mining tends to be common), temperate worlds, tropical ones. And then there are the planetoids/space stations with their artificial environments. This would make it next to impossible for it to be a bacteria based plague.

All a virus needs is a direct carrier, depending upon incubation time, it can then spread like wildfire, through those infected but as yet unaffected by the bug. So saying that two people are carriers, and they go through an busy transit area, then they're liable to infect others and those others will take the disease with them to their next destination and so on.

In addition, a specifically tailored virus will have a fixed half life, this to ensure that it doesn't keep on raging out of control, after it's done its job. A natural virus on the other hand, would still linger in incubation form.

And thus the new batch of males* would've gotten infected as well.

*: The only initially valid choices for breeding would be those with a natural immunity, like Whiskey's old man (not exactly the best of choices really). It would be only after a vaccine/cure was created that you could dip back into the established gene samples, because if you used them sooner, than the males would just end up dead again, due to their lack of immunity.

None of that is needed on the other hand, if it's a tailored virus with a finite lifespan.



Think what you will. Doesn't change the fact that a) colonizing another planet isn't exactly the easiest thing to do and that it requires nearly all the human resources that the colony has available, slash the work force in say half, and things will go down the drain rapidly.

While the resource requirements like food will also decrease, such a sudden shift will have unfortunate side effects. Example, the local power station. If, it previously had 10 engineers to maintain it, and after the plague only 5 are left, then that means the remainder has had their work load doubled, which can increase the chances of mistakes being made.

It also takes time to train replacements, so said 5 would have to put up with said load for an unspecified amount of time and even then you're working with the premise that said 10 was simply to run at maximum efficiency as opposed to minimum requirement to keep the plant running at all.

b) It's almost a given that the majority of the members in the Armed Forces are male, and that would apply to both Terran as Colonist Forces.
Think that's BS? Look at the current armies, with the exception of the Israeli Defense Force, women are banned from active military roles.

And those few, who are allowed in such roles (mainly thinking aviators here) are a minority, when you compare the general make up of their unit(s).

Even taking into consideration that this takes place in the future, then I simply have to point to all the other stories in such a setting, from Star Trek to Wing Commander to Macross, and even to Battletech*.

The number of females in the crew, in actual direct combat roles, is uneven to say the least.

*: Battletech is both an affirmation as an exception to this. Standard Inner Sphere Armed Forces are mostly male, Mercenary Forces are a toss up, but an increase in female membership when compared to regular forces is likely. Clanners do have a more equal split, but that has to do with their entire societal set up with warriors being bred for the role, and that the children groups (sibkos) are divided equally 50-50 into male and female. It's simply an issue of survival of the fittest afterwards.

About the only show that I know of that does have an increase in female participants would be Vandread, then again, the premise of that show is that males and females went their own way and have been at war with each other for ages, and now have to deal with the predation of the folks back on Earth who didn't have such a split.




Sperm banks aren't exactly high on the list of requirements to run a successful colony. Not initially anyway, the necessity for such things would only manifest after the planet has been colonized for a sufficiently long enough time, that it can afford to miss the people who run the bank from the overall workforce.

Same applies to things like theaters, museums, cinema's etc etc. Things which are important as a colony begins to blossom on its own, but not during the initial struggle to survive and settling in.

Depending on the local requirements the main areas of concern for a starting colony are: air (Space stations and worlds with a hostile climate), food, water, heat (for arctic worlds), cooling (for arid worlds), direct medical needs (and IVF isn't one of those) and power (to run the machinery). Main focus of interest on the other hand would be: extracting the local resources and preparing them for eventual use.




*shrugs* That's your call to make.